The Scarlet Mystery
by Ji'aska
Summary: When a legendary pokémon tasks you with solving a generation's long mystery, what choice does one really have? This is the situation that Jenny finds herself in. Red pokémon have appeared throughout history, and no one knows why. How far will Jenny go to solve the puzzle? Inspired by Pokémon: Crystal. Constructive criticism is welcome.


Chapter 1: A Series Of Curious Events

Jenny's day started strange, to say the least.

She had gone to sleep early in the morning, around five. A few hours later she awoke; the sun was still raising in the sky as she pulled herself out of bed. She felt fully rested, yet dazed by her deep sleep. She went through her morning routines on autopilot.

It wasn't until she was downstairs preparing a bowl of cereal that it occurred to her how strange her well-rested state was.

Jenny absently took a bite of her cornflakes, while trying to figure out how long she'd been asleep for.

 _'Two hours? Two and a half?'_ Jenny thought to herself. She glanced around the dining/living room, trying to find her phone. She found it across the table from her.

Jenny blinked, surprised. "I could've sworn I left it somewhere else…" the girl shrugged, not too bothered by the situation. She reached across the table for the phone and checked the time.

Jenny stared at the phone for a moment, dumbfounded. "I woke up at 6:43? In the _AM?_ " She had slept for only two hours? But why did she feel so… well rested?

Jenny pondered the situation for a moment. She tried to figure out the logic of the situation for a moment, before letting out a sigh and giving up on the issue. Jenny glanced at the phone again, and she noticed that she had received a text message. She checked the time stamp on the message; it was posted around the time that she went to sleep. Jenny let out an exacerbated sigh; she didn't recognise the number.

 _'I hate these sorts of messages. Probably just somebody trying to sell me something…'_ Jenny rolled her eyes. She clicked on the text, a bemused expression on her face.

'Odd, isn't it?' The text read. Jenny raised a brow at the message. It didn't really make any sense. Despite her better judgement, she started typing a reply.

'That was vague' She shrugged her shoulders. She was about to set her phone aside and return to her breakfast when her phone binged, informing her of a new message.

'The sentret outside your window. Odd, don't you think?'

Jenny felt a shiver run down her spine. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. The sudden text was unnerving, but it was probably just a trick. Maybe it was an automated message set to respond to whatever she wrote.

"On the other hand, the message seemed too accurate to the context of the conversation," Jenny argued with herself. "And a sentret? Really?"

She thought for a moment longer, before rising to her feet and walking over to the window. The easiest way to settle her concerns was to check to see if there was actually a sentret outside her house.

Jenny carefully pulled the blinds to the side and looked out at the streets of Cherrygrove City. She looked around for a small, round, brown-furred pokémon. She was surprised when she found a pokémon that fit two of those descriptions.

She was definitely looking at a sentret. Except its fur was dark red instead of brown. Jenny also thought it looked unnaturally thin.

"Pretty though…" she mumbled, and the sentret's attention snapped to her.

Jenny felt like a stantler in the headlights. _'How did you even hear me? I was whispering, and I'm inside a building!'_ She stood under the small pokémon's gaze, not even breathing for a moment. The sentret seemed to be sizing her up. Something about that felt off to Jenny, but she couldn't place the reason.

The moment passed, and the maroon coloured sentret ran off out of view. Jenny quickly searched for another person outside, hoping she wasn't the only person to have seen it. But the streets where empty, owing to the time.

Wasting no time she started typing a response to the unknown number. 'That was a red sentret. I don't know a lot about pokémon variants, but I've never heard of red sentret before.'

'You wouldn't've. There's no such thing.'

Jenny scowled at the text on the screen. No such thing? She just saw one! The more she thought about it, the more she wanted answers. The girl sighed, her curiosity was getting the better of her. _Again_.

'Okay, spill. You know what's going on, yeah?'

'It's certainly a possibility…' Was the response, quickly followed by, 'but honestly, it would be too difficult to type this out. If you want to know more, I'll be hanging around Cherrygrove beach.'

That caused Jenny to pause. _'He wants to meet up with me?'_ She felt uncertain about. _'This could all be an elaborate trick…'_

But her curiosity couldn't accept that.

'How will I know who you are?' She needed more information before deciding one way or the other.

'Trust me, you'll know me when you see me. I look pretty weird.' Jenny's eyes narrowed at the message. She still wanted answers, but this situation seemed sketchier by the moment.

"Well… there is one thing that could scare him off if this is one big trick." She mumbled to herself as she began typing.

'Can I bring my mum?' Jenny didn't have to wait long; as she had come to expect.

'Sure, bring whoever you like.'

Well, that settled it.

Jenny ran up the stairs to her room and picked out some summer clothes. She quickly changed into them, all the while mentally preparing herself for her biggest challenge: convincing her hum to get up before eight, get dressed, and go along with her to meet a stranger who had been texting her.

Jenny smiled despite herself; how hard could that be?

* * *

Jenny's Mum sipped her coffee from her travel flask. "I swear, if this turns out to be a scam or some creep, I'll never let you live it down."

"Yeah, I know Mum." Jenny sighed. Getting her mum out of bed and to the state where she was willing to leave the house had taken twenty minutes, some begging, a healthy amount of bribery, and a whole cup of coffee prior to her current one.

"Don't speak to me with that tone," Jenny's Mum mumbled, "honestly, a red sentret? You believe that?"

"Of course, I _saw_ it." The girl started looking around as they got closer to Cherrygrove's beach. There was no one around, except for them.

Jenny blinked. Something felt off. It was like a wave of energy had washed over her, and then it was gone.

"Did you feel that?" Jenny turned to face her mum, who was unmoving. Jenny blinked, surprised for a moment before the reality of the situation struck her. She walked around her mum, studying her.

Jenny's Mum was unmoving, stuck posed to bring her cup to her mouth for another sip. Jenny waved a hand in front of her eyes, and poked her in the arm, but received no response. That wasn't the only strange thing. Jenny tried to clear her mind and listen. All she could hear was her breaths and her rising heartbeat. There weren't any waves, or wind, or wild pokémon.

She really started to panic, when she heard something else. It was the splashing of water. She turned and quickly got closer to the water's edge, and saw something quite strange.

There was a pokémon backstroking in the water with its eyes closed. From where Jenny was standing, she could see that the pokémon was very small, about the size of a toddler, and very fairylike in appearance. Its upper body was various shades of green, whereas its legs were a familiar shade of dark blue that Jenny couldn't place. With its eyes closed, it sort of looked like it was wearing heavy eye shadow.

The pokémon seemed to be singing to itself, and Jenny even thought it was quite pleasant, but she needed to regain some control of the situation.

"Sorry for the interruption," Jenny laughed nervously, "but you wouldn't happen to know why my mum's acting like a mannequin, would you?"

The fairylike pokémon's eyes blinked open, showing them to be blood red. It looked around, unsure for a moment until its eyes fell on Jenny. It flew out of the water, raising until it was on eye level with Jenny.

Jenny was quite surprised, both by how effortless that seemed, but equally by how the water reacted. The water moved as it was being displaced by the pokémon, but as soon as it was no longer touching said pokémon, the water froze in place.

The pokémon started making a melodious sound, moving slightly from side to side, staring at Jenny.

The girl was fairly sure she knew what the pokémon was, even though its appearance didn't quite match the descriptions she had heard about it. _'Although, that seems appropriate, given the sentret.'_ Jenny mused to herself. _'It's gotta be a celebi…'_

The pokémon nodded its head at her.

"Hey?" Jenny nervously gulped.

 _'I was agreeing with you.'_ A voice whispered in the back of Jenny's head. Understandably, she freaked out. The celebi waved its hands with a grin on its face. _'Whoa, calm down. It's me, the celebi. It's telepathy.'_

"What?" Jenny looked the strange pokémon over. "You can do that?"

 _'Yep!'_ The celebi grinned. _'I tried talking to you, but you couldn't understand me. So this'll have to do…'_

Jenny turned her head to the side in confusion. "Humans can't understand pokémon."

 _'You'd be surprised. I know some kids in Kanto who can, actually…'_ The celebi shook its head. _'Not important. Who are you, and why aren't you frozen?'_

"My name's Jenny. And I've got… absolutely no idea." She gave the pokémon nervous shrug. "I was actually going to ask _you_ why my mum's frozen, but I'm guessing it's a time thing?" She laughed awkwardly. "Oh. What's your name by the way, or do you go by Celebi?"

The celebi flew around her, studying her for a moment. _'Have you_ ever _known a human called Human?'_ The pokémon shook its head. _'Sorry, not your fault. A bit of a sore point. My name's Twist. Earlier, or possibly right now, I stopped time. Therefore, the world appears to be frozen, which your mum is.'_ Twist waved its hands in her direction. _'You are a temporal anomaly. Congrats. Now, what brought you here at this exact moment?'_

Jenny grabbed her phone from her pocket. "Well, I've been getting some weird texts. And I saw an oddly coloured sentret."

 _'Oh.'_ Twist stopped in front of Jenny, floating upside down. _'Was it red? Maroon? Scarlet? Possibly, dare I ask, magenta?'_

"Sort of maroon?" Jenny looked up in thought. "And the texts seemed to know when I was going to do something, where the sentret was, and then the sender told me to meet them here…" Jenny trailed off for a moment as realisation set in. "Did you send the texts?"

Twist shrugged. _'Maybe I will send them, but not yet.'_

Jenny stared at the pokémon bemused. "What?"

The celebi rolled its eyes. _'I'm the Time Travel Pokémon. It's what I_ do. _'_

Jenny clicked her fingers in understanding. "Right! You did send the texts, in _my past_ , but in _your future_." She sighed, "Oh, that's already starting to get annoying to say. But if that's the case, why… will? Did? _Have?_ " Jenny shook her head to clear her confusion. "Screw it, I don't care. Why _will_ you send the texts to me?"

Twist giggled, and didn't stop even as it answered. _'Don't do that, it's silly. I have no idea_ why _I'm going to do it._ ' The celebi shrugged. _'Maybe you're the chosen one.'_

"Those exist?"

 _'Probably not, but don't quote me on that.'_ Twist looked down at the ground in thought. _'Why did you come here, Jenny? I get that you saw something weird, but why did you decide to…act on it?'_

"Oh." The girl looked around nervously, not quite sure herself. "Well, I think it's because I kinda like mysteries? I wanted to solve it…" She blushed. "Wow. That sounds really stupid."

The time pokémon stared at Jenny for what felt like an eternity. And for all she knew, maybe that's what actually happened. The celebi seemed to be studying her again, but differently. Before Twist seemed dismissive of her, she'd been an oddity, but nothing more. Now… it felt like the pokémon was sizing her up for something.

 _'Tell me, just how far would you go to solve this mystery?'_

"What, of the maroon sentret?" Jenny raised a brow. "It's weird, don't get me wrong, but I'm not _that_ curious."

The celebi shook its head. _'No, actually. It's more like the mystery of the scarlet pokémon.'_

Jenny's eyes lit up. "Go on…"

Twist grinned. _'Throughout all of known history, there have been scattered reports and sightings of red pokémon. Obviously, we're talking about pokémon that aren't generally some kind of red. Like pidgey. Or oddish.'_ The celebi seemed to be in deep thought. _'I think I've even heard about a scarlet ekans at one point. They kind of come and go, but… there seems to be an influx right now.'_

"Wait," Jenny gave Twist a suspicious look, "you're a _time traveller._ Why don't you just go back and ask if you're so curious?"

 _'Tried that.'_ The celebi shrugged. _'In the past, people_ and _pokémon saw them as bad omens and wiped them out. And the ones I could find, when they were done trying to kill me, had no idea where the colours came from.'_

"And what about now? Do people still… ya know?" Jenny avoided the celebi's gaze.

 _'Not sure. There aren't enough of them that the general public knows about them yet.'_ Twist pointed at the human. _'There you have it, a mystery that dates back through all of recorded history. What do you think?'_

Jenny was interested, infuriatingly so, but she tried to keep a straight face. She didn't want to agree to something without having more information first. Then it occurred to her that Twist was probably reading her mind at the moment, and her efforts were a waste of time.

The celebi's smug look and nod confirmed it.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Okay, sure, but how am I supposed to do that? Find the sentret? But then what would I do?"

Twist rolled its eyes. _'Catch it? Take it to a pokémon centre, or one of those renowned professors?'_

"I'm not a trainer. It wasn't something I was interested in at the time…" Jenny trailed off, lost in thought for a moment.

The celebi nodded its agreement. _'I get that. But you know what?'_ Twist smiled playfully at her. _'If you start a pokémon team, and became a respectable trainer, it might not be so difficult to become a professional detective from there…'_

Jenny's eyes narrowed. "Are you telling me my future, or are you trying to manipulate me?"

 _'Yes.'_ Twist simply smiled.

"Ha." Jenny rolled her eyes. "Fine, sure. It's not like I was doing much anyways…"

 _'You really weren't.'_ Twist shook its head disapprovingly. _'Girl, you need to get some hobbies.'_ Suddenly a deck of playing cards appeared floating in front of Jenny's face. _'Card games are fun, though you need some friends for that to work.'_

Jenny gave the legendary pokémon an unamused look but took the cards anyways. "So… any tips for me, or do you just want me to get started?"

Twist hummed as it thought. _'Well, since you mentioned it. The Cherrygrove City Pokémon Centre does pokémon adoptions for trainers without pokémon, so try that out. Don't head towards New Bark Town, it's a dead end and the sentret didn't go that way. Oh.'_ The celebi smiled and flew closer to Jenny. _'Also, a gift! This should make things… okay, not easier, but certainly more interesting.'_

"What are you gonna-" Before Jenny could finish her question, the celebi had kissed her on the forehead. Jenny was surprised and greatly confused by this for a moment, but those feelings were quickly overwhelmed by a headache that came out of nowhere. Twist's giggling did not help matters.

"Ah… what did you?" She winced, the throbbing in her head slowly eased.

 _"Nothing much,"_ Twist said, _"be careful now, you might pass it on."_

"What?" Jenny asked harshly. Twist didn't answer. The fairylike pokémon was smiling at her one moment, and the next it was gone.

"So, where's the guy you were supposed to meet?" Jenny spun around, surprised to hear another voice. It was her mum, who was now looking at her with an annoyed expression.

"Oh," Jenny chuckled nervously, "I guess it was just a joke. Funny, huh?"

Jenny's Mum's eye twitched. She took a sip of her coffee, turned around, and started walking back home. "No, Jen. No, it isn't."

Jenny followed behind her mum, her thoughts on the strange conversation she just had. Had she really agreed to adopt a pokémon, to _solve a_ _mystery,_ merely on a whim? And what was that kiss about? Her headache notwithstanding, something had felt off after the kiss. Twist's voice had seemed different, and further away…

The girl's eyes widened in realisation. _'Twist shifted from telepathy to speaking out loud.'_

Jenny started muttering nonsensical annoyances to herself. Her conversation with Twist had just left her with _more_ questions.

* * *

The pokémon centre's lobby area was welcoming. The room was decorated in an array of bright colours, and the chairs were quite comfortable. The only exception to the rule was the pristine white desk that the resistant Nurse Joy was currently stationed behind.

Jenny was growing increasingly nervous sitting in one of the centre's softest chairs. She was the only person in the pokémon centre, but she had been told to wait. This left her with time to over-think recent events.

"Sorry about that, I was just taking some notes…" The Nurse Joy droned. "You may come over now."

Jenny gulped. She got up from the comfy chair and quickly made her way over to the counter.

"Hey there, um, I heard from a friend of mine that this pokémon centre had some pokémon up for adoption?"

The nurse gave her a curious look before nodding her head. "Yes, we do." Nurse Joy reached for a stack of papers, grabbing one piece. She got a black ink pen from the desk. "This shouldn't take too long. Name?"

"Oh, um, Jennifer Walker."

"What's your age?"

"Twelve."

"Do you have a trainer's license?"

Jenny shrugged her shoulders, "who doesn't?" She presented her license to the nurse who nodded in turn.

Nurse Joy continued asking Jenny some standard questions. For the most part, Jenny was able to answer with no issue. There was a small issue about her phone number, as she couldn't remember it nor knew how to access it, but it was quickly resolved.

"Well," Nurse Joy sighed, "it seems we've got to the last question. What's your reason for wanting to adopt?"

"Oh. Well," Jenny gulped, nervously trying to figure out to explain the situation without sounding insane. "I wanted to do a bit of travelling, and things are much safer with a pokémon. Besides that, I guess it would be for company?"

The nurse nodded her head. "So, you'll be looking for a pokémon that has the right temperament for travel and domestics?" Nurse Joy looked up in thought. "Probably best to match you with a young pokémon so that it can bond with you. Pokémon that have been trained before are commonly difficult for beginners to manage. It should make things easier for you in the long run."

Jenny nodded. "That sounds like a good idea…"

The nurse started typing at the computer for a few moments. Eventually, her face shifted to one of discomfort. She looked at Jenny with an uneasy look in her eyes.

Jenny nervous chuckled. "Is something the matter?"

"Not exactly." Nurse Joy slowly shook her head. "Tell me, were you expecting a pure-bred pokémon?"

"It hadn't occurred to me…" Jenny gave the nurse a confused look, "is that something I should be concerned about?"

The nurse let out a sigh and smiled. "Not really. Some people prefer their pokémon to look 'on brand', you know? At least half of the pokémon in the adoption system look noticeably _off_ from the expected. It's generally a result of mixed parentage, but sometimes it's just a mutation…" The nurse shook her head. "Sorry, I got off track there."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Jenny gave the nurse a nervous smile. "I don't mind if the pokémon looks a bit different."

Nurse Joy nodded. "That's good, because we only have one pokémon that fits all of the criteria." The nurse got up from the desk with the forum they had filled was in her hand. She turned around and went through the door behind the desk into a back room and out of Jenny's sight.

 _'Talking to people. It's gonna be the death of me…'_ Jenny thought to herself, letting out a sigh of relief. _'Although, I think might've found a lead…'_

She took out her phone and typed a quick note to herself. 'Mixing pokémon breeds lead to weird appearances? Further research needed…'

"That's gotta be connected to the scarlet thing, right?" The girl mumbled to herself. "Probably not that simple though…"

Nurse Joy returned from the back room, a standard red and white pokéball in hand. The pink-haired woman smiled at Jenny, "good luck."

Jenny didn't have a chance to respond; Nurse Joy pressed the pokéball's button and there was a flash of white light.

Jenny rapidly blinked her eyes, trying to get rid of the colourful spots. When her vision cleared she saw a cyndaquil stood on the desk. It currently didn't have the iconic flames bursting out of its back, which allowed her to clearly see what Nurse Joy was talking about.

The fur on the underside of the cyndaquil's body was the standard cream colour. The fur on its back that led up to its head was supposed to be a deep blue, but instead, it was jet black.

Jenny blinked, instantly confused at the situation. She glanced at the Nurse Joy. "You're telling me people wouldn't want this guy because of the black fur? It's a fire type, with jet black fur!" Jenny looked back at the cyndaquil, who was staring at her with curiosity. "You look _incredible._ Super marketable."

The cyndaquil hopped energetically. _"You really think so? Thanks so much!"_

Jenny blinked at the fire pokémon. Four times in fact. _'Well, I guess I can just understand pokémon_ _now. That's fun…'_ Jenny sighed, trying to keep a straight face.

"Excitable guy, aren't you?" A strained smile found its way onto Jenny's face.

"He's very young." Nurse Joy confirmed. "Hasn't been in the system very long, so he should be pretty easy to work with."

Jenny nodded. "That's good…" She turned her focus back to the cyndaquil. "So, little guy, do you wanna travel with me?"

The small fire pokémon looked up, clearly considering the situation. _"Well… I want to go back to that dark cave, and while it's a slim chance that you're heading that way, there's no chance if I stay here, so, why not?"_ The cyndaquil smiled and nodded his head.

"I'll take that as a yes." Jenny smiled. The uncontrollable twitch in her eye was barely noticeable. She turned back to the nurse, "is there anything else we need to take care of, or can we just… go?"

The nurse shrugged her shoulders. "We've already done most of the paperwork…" She trailed off, as she quickly searched through the forms. She pulled one out and nodded. "The only thing left is to give him a name for the record keeping purposes."

Nurse Joy handed the form to Jenny and gestured to a dotted-line on the paper. She said, "Just write the name here. Take your time," the pink-haired woman looked around the vacant pokémon centre, "We're not particularly busy right now."

Jenny grabbed a pen and put a decent show of pretending to think about a name. In actuality, she was thinking back on her conversation with Twist. _'Have you met a human called Human?'_ Had been Twist's sentiment on naming a pokémon after its species. The thought caused Jenny to approach the subject from a different perspective.

 _'Twist had a name.'_ She turned to look at the cyndaquil. _'So maybe he does too. I should at least ask…'_

"What about you?" Jenny asked the fire pokémon, "Have any thoughts on a name?"

The cyndaquil nodded his head. _"Of course! My name's Smokey!"_ The fire pokémon then proceeded to blow a puff of smoke above his head to visualise his point.

Jenny pretended to think for a moment, "Smoke, huh? Or Smoker? Definitely not…" the girl turned to the nurse, "What do you think of Smokey, as a name?"

Nurse Joy raised a brow. "Seems a little… basic, don't you think?" In response, the cyndaquil started hopping and shaking his head, "then again, he seems to like it."

"Then it's settled." Jenny wrote the name on the dotted line and handed the form back to the medical official.

Nurse Joy nodded her head, and handed Smokey's pokéball over to Jenny, "you're ready to go. Have a nice day, and we hope to see you again."

Jenny raised an eyebrow at that comment. She returned Smokey to the pokéball and swiftly left the pokémon centre thereafter.

Once outside, she looked at the pokéball in her hand. Inside was her first pokémon. She thought back on the last couple of hours, so many things happened that she simply wasn't expecting. She shook her head to get rid of the thought.

If she analysed it too deeply at that moment, she'd begin to second guess herself.

"And I have a mystery to solve…" Jenny mumbled to herself.

* * *

 **To anyone that reads all the way to the end, thank you for your time.**

 **This is a bit of a writing style experiment, so any feedback on the grammar or the story, but mostly on the story, would be appreciated. The pacing, the characters, the setup, anything that crosses the mind,** **really.**

 **Shameless plug time! If you enjoyed this, maybe you'd also enjoy my other Pokémon fanfic, Walkabout. It's an original trainer story set in Kanto, so it's basically one of the most overdone story concepts ever. Yay. It does share continuity with this story, however. It's not required reading, but they'll probably be references.**

 **Anyways, have a nice day.**


End file.
